Accessibility – Hard
Height – 45′
Distance – 2.2 miles (out and back)
Beauty – 5
Photo rating – 3
Solitude – 8
GPS Info: LAT 34.84954 LONG -83.08687
Last Updated: 2025-12-24
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Who Knew Falls is a 45-foot-high waterfall upstream of Station Cove Falls in Oconee, SC, not too far from the NC border. Reaching Who Knew Falls requires getting to Station Cove Falls. Refer to that hike to accomplish the easy part of this trek. In addition to hiking to Who Knew Falls, this will also recount the route to Twin Cove Falls and Jack Pulpit Falls, which are all up above Station Cove Falls and close together.
Where to park: There is a wide pullout on the side of Oconee Station Road at the trailhead, and additional roadside parking. This is a popular trailhead, and it does fill. The parking area GPS is: 34.84893, -83.07453.
The hike: Standing at the base of Station Cove Falls, several steep scramble paths head up the river-right slope. The way up is extremely steep, and I found the safest approach was to angle away from Station Cove Falls until I neared a narrow drainage where I was able to get to the top of the ridge. There wasn’t much deadfall to contend with, and once I was on top of the knob, there was a faint path that led the way to the best place to descend down to the base of Who Knew Falls. I know there wasn’t a lot of detail in that description, but we all go at these kinds of things differently. The rest of the group I was with went a different way, and we all got there safely. The descent to the creek wasn’t that bad, but getting to the falls did require climbing over some stuff.
A large tree lay across the base of the falls, detracting from the view, but it is still a nice waterfall, and there is little chance you will run into anyone else when you visit. The kind of sketchy climb required to get to Who Knew Falls will not be necessary to get to Twin Cove Falls, which is between Who Knew Falls and Station Cove Falls at the point where two creeks merge. The easiest route is to walk in the creek to the top of Twin Cove Falls, then climb down the open rock on river right to reach the base. It was fairly straightforward, and the same went for getting to Jack Pulpit Falls, which can be accessed by heading up the river right side of the tributary to the base of the falls. Here is a look at Twin Cove Falls. This is Jack Pulpit Falls.
Now that you’ve been to all three waterfalls, you can get back one of two ways. You can reverse the route used to get here, or you can do what we did, which might sound sketchy, but I think it would be less sketchy and easier than doubling back. We climbed up Jack Pulpit Falls, crossed to river left, and went up the hillside, reaching the Oconee Connector Trail near the top of the ridge. We made a right and followed the trail back to the trail leading to Station Cove Falls, and made a left. Other than having to climb up the waterfall, the route wasn’t bad, and even getting up the falls wasn’t awful. Way better than the way we came up. I would use this route to get to these falls, versus the climb up from Station Cove.